Gary Matthews
| wrestling_style = Technical, Hardcore | winloss_record = Unknown | debut = 2001 (Indys), 2008 (Mainstream) | retired = 2014 | handler = -- }} Early Life (1976-2001) Gary David Matthews was born May 29, 1976 in Pittsburgh, PA, to wealthy parents. His father was a corporate CEO and his mother a lawyer. During Gary's third year of life, his father suddenly died of a massive heart attack, leaving him and his mother alone. While they were financially set for life, his mom turned to alcohol and no longer had any interest in her toddler son. When Gary was old enough for school, his mother sent him away to boarding school. Gary was in and out of various boarding schools between kindergarten and high school due to frequent fights with other students. It took him an extra year to complete high school due to the many expulsions, and at age 19, Gary graduated high school and found himself homeless since his mother refused to allow him back in her house. Gary worked odd jobs and, eventually, enrolled to the University of Pittsburgh. Gary decided to join Pitt's wrestling squad, and was a natural. In fact, he was the top wrestler on Pitt's team, and in his junior year, they made the semi-finals. Although he was their best wrestler, Pitt had a lot of problems with Gary because he was known for cheating when he felt it would benefit him, and he was also known for becoming aggressive when a match did not go his way. Since the team was so successful, they mainly looked the other way. Until the semi-finals, that is. At the semi-final matches, the referee made what Gary considered a very bad call, costing him the match, and Pitt the semi-finals. Gary flew into a rage, and attacked both the referee and his opponent in the match. The incident made national news, and under pressure by the NCAA, Pitt had no alternative but to kick Gary off the squad. A year later, Gary became an instant millionaire when his estranged mother died of cancer. It was at his mother's funeral that he reunited with his uncle, retired wrestler, Jack "The Hammer" Smith, who offered to train Gary in pro wrestling after Gary graduated college. Two years later, in 1999, Gary started training under his Uncle Jack. Professional Wrestling Career Erie Wrestling League (2001-2006) Gary started his wrestling career in a promotion where Smith had worked as a booker for several years. The Erie Wrestling League (EWL) held shows in Cleveland, OH; Buffalo, NY; Erie, PA; and occasionally in both Columbus, OH and Pittsburgh. Gary's mixture of amateur wrestling and brutality made him an instant success, and he held the EWL Heavyweight Championship on four separate occasions during his five years in the league. He and Jack left the EWL in 2006 after Jack's daughter, Brooklyn, went missing and the pair dedicated all of their time to finding her. Shootclub (2008-2009) In 2008, after Brooklyn was presumed dead, with heavy hearts, Jack and Gary returned to wrestling. This time, Gary's goal was to go pro and he wanted to do it through the Shootclub Wrestling Alliance (SWA), which was the largest alliance of wrestling promotions at the time, spanning many continents. Gary started his training in 2008 in the development camp in Arizona. Taking the advice of camp trainers, Gary shortened his last name to Matt and he took on the nickname "The Maniac." It was also in Shootcamp where Jack Smith retired and stopped managing Gary for a variety of reasons, including being heartbroken over the loss of his two children and his wife in the span of only four years, not to mention arguments with Gary about his constant drinking and partying. Matt's first feud was with a wrestler named AC Spade, who Gary defeated with much controversy to win the SWA Rising Star Championship. Gary went on to feud with a man he would face a lot over the coming years named Max Dynamite. Dynamite was key in causing Gary to lose the title a month later. Gary's training continued in Vancouver, B.C., where he joined a stable called The Hellfire Club, which had a reputation throughout the SWA. The Hellfire Club was led by Alexi Chambers, who took an instant liking to Matt. Matt's final match in training was a hell in a cell where Gary introduced a blowtorch to the action. Despite this, Gary lost the match, but he was then approached by the SWA for a full-time contract. Vegas Stakes Wrestling and Empire State Wrestling (2009) When Gary entered the SWA's regional promotion out of Las Vegas, Vegas Stakes Wrestling (VSW) in February of 2009, The Hellfire Club had grown drastically across the Southwest. Alexi Chambers was in over his head after opening the Club to the Devious family, and subsequently, he left the SWA, handing the Club to Gary. Gary's first order of business was very popular with the fans, as he kicked out the Devious family, which included Johnny Devious and Typhoid Mary, who were both wrestling in VSW. This led to a short period of time where Gary's alignment was considered "tweener and he feuded with both Devious and Mary. In March, he defeated Devious in a steel cage match after superplexing Johnny from the top of the cage, and in May, Gary won the VSW Silver State Championship after defeating Typhoid Mary. After losing the title in June, Gary formed a tag-team with new Hellfire Club member Static Widow. Together, the pair, named Mal-Intent, won the VSW Tag-Team Championships twice. They also were involved in a bitter feud with Max Dynamite and Sebastian "The Monster" Payne, AKA Rated Extreme. In August, in a steel cage weapons match between the two teams, Gary set fire to Dynamite. As a result, both Gary and Widow were fired from VSW. Empire State Wrestling (ESW) took on the couple's contract in October, and The Hellfire Club reunited with Alexi Chambers. Mal-Intent also continued their winning ways, holding the ESW Tag-Team Championship twice. Gary was also a triple crown champion in ESW, holding the ESW Tag-Team Championship, the ESW Heavyweight Championship, and the ESW Big Apple Championship during the month of December. Despite this success, things started to fall apart for Gary. Static Widow ended their romantic relationship, and the tag-team. Gary was also in conflict with ESW management. At the end of December, he still held the ESW Heavyweight title, but left the promotion, vacating the belt. Outback Wrestling League (2010) After leaving ESW, Gary was hoping to join one of the SWA's national promotions, but none of the three promotions were ready to pick up his contract. Frustrated, Gary decided to go to Australia's Outback Wrestling League (OWL), at the advice of Alexi Chambers. However, when he arrived in OWL, he discovered that Alexi had lost The Hellfire Club to Gary's old rival, Johnny Devious. Devious did, however, offer Gary a spot in the Club, which Gary grudgingly accepted. Despite being a member of the Club, Gary and Johnny were always at odds. This led to Gary's first SWA Pay-Per-View appearance. On February 28, at SWA Burning Hearts, Gary challenged Johnny Devious for the OWL Southern Cross Championship. The match, however, was a setup, and Gary fell victim to a three-on-one assault during the match. After the show, Matt and Devious got into a confrontation at the hotel where they were staying, and another gang attack on Gary left him with multiple injuries, putting Gary on injured reserved for three weeks. Gary almost quit the SWA altogether at this point, but had a change of heart when he was given a rematch for the Southern Cross Championship in May. This time, Matt would win the title. The win of the Southern Cross Championship finally got Gary what he was looking for: a national contract. The Canadian Wrestling Federation (CWF) offered Gary a contract to wrestle in the league which was televised throughout Canada, and Gary accepted. Canadian Wrestling Federation (2010-2011) Gary moved to Toronto in July, 2010, and joined the CWF as an edgy babyface. In August, he won the CWF National Television Championship, which led to his first shot at a SWA title. On September 28, 2010, Gary faced Ashton Vale for the SWA United States Championship at the SWA Colossal Cup Pay-Per-View event. Gary would once again see a loss at a SWA Pay-Per-View after Nikki Love took advantage of a downed referee to hit Matt with a brass-knuckle heart punch, allowing Vale to get the pinfall. In October, Gary started dating future world-champion Taylor Chase and the couple also formed a much needed wrestling alliance, feuding against Markie DeSade and The Contessa. The feud led to two big matches at the next SWA PPV, King of the Mountain in late November. On that night, Chase defeated Contessa in a Last Woman Standing match, and Gary defeated DeSade in a steel cage match. In December, Gary proposed marriage to Taylor, but Taylor declined. The couple soon after broke up. Then on February 20, 2011, Gary was slated to face Chase inside a steel cage on CWF television. Gary came out to the ring in street clothes that night, with no intensions of fighting Taylor. Taylor left the ring, angry and in tears, and this opened the door for Typhoid Mary, Rage Blackwolf, and Michael Bauer. Mary and Rage entered the cage, while Bauer padlocked the doors shut. The doubleteam was too much for Gary, where he endured Blackwolf's "Shattered," a spike powerbomb, and finally, Mary's devastating "Stir of Echoes." Help finally came in the form of Taylor Chase, still in her wrestling gear. Taylor climbed the cage and took on both Mary and Rage alone. Eventually, many other stars would storm the ring, but Mary and Rage had made their point. Gary was left a bloody mess, but he and Taylor had united. On February 26, Matt faced Typhoid Mary in an I Quit match, the last match ever televised under the CWF name. A very brutal, bloody match ended with Matt submitting to Mary. Dominion Championship Wrestling (2011-2013) At the end of February, 2011, the SWA folded. The CWF, however, moved it's offices to Montreal and was renamed Dominion Championship Wrestling. In May, Gary defeated rival Michael Bauer to become DCW Golden Horseshoe Champion, a title which he would hold for four months. Gary would go on to feud with Markie DeSade once again, although the feud was cut short when during a six-person tag-team match pitting Matt and DeSade on opposite sides, Gary accidentally hit his partner and friend Callisto Cristos in the face with a steel chair aimed for Desade, fracturing her nose. This resulted in a feud between Gary and Callista's husband, Sebastian Blake. Gary lost the Golden Horseshoe Championship on September 26 to Francois Remy, due to interference from Blake and Cristos. In October, a new stable called Newvolution, consisting of Aaron Harrison, Lukas Montgomery, and Mika Kozlov joined DCW and targeted Taylor and her cousin Leighton Chase. Gary and Leighton started a counter-stable soon to be known as The Resistance. The two groups would go on to feud through the end of 2011. On February 24, 2012 at Maple Leaf Madness, Gary put his career on the line in a match that placed himself and Gracie Morningwood against Mika Kozlov and Morningwood's antagonist, Angelica Eveningwood. During the course of the match, interference from Aaron Harrison rendered the referee unconscious, and this was followed by an attack on Matt, and subsequently, a replacement referee came down to the ring and counted the pinfall on Matt. Approximately a month after Gary was forced into retirement, a new wrestler named Masked Vengeance joined DCW. Vengeance was never seen without his black mask and only spoke during recorded promos where his voice was digitally distorted. His manager was a young woman known as Lady Penance, who also wore a mask, but who did all the talking for Vengeance on live television. The duo immediately waged war on Newvolution, with Aaron Harrison being his prime target. On June 24, 2012 at the DCW Endwar pay-per-view event, Vengeance faced Aaron Harrison in a match, where if Vengeance lost, he would have to unmask on the next edition of Madness. Harrison was able to cheat his way to victory, and two weeks later, Vengeance unmasked, revealing himself to be Slava B., a good friend of Gary. Newvolution attacked Slava, only to have the real Masked Vengeance rush to the ring, taking out everyone with a steel chair. This would be the last time Vengeance was ever seen in DCW. Although, it was suspected that Matt was the Masked Vengeance, it was in 2017 that Gary admitted to WrestlingToday.com that he was the masked man. In September, Madison Chase was named new General Manager of DCW, and one of her first orders of business was to allow Matt to wrestle again in DCW. Gary spent the rest of his tenure in DCW feuding with Newvolution, Sebastian Blake, and Typhoid Mary. Gary also received two title shots during this time, but lost both times. In March 2013, DCW was dissolved. Independent Wrestling Cartel (2013-2014) After leaving DCW, Gary and Taylor moved to Orlando, where Gary's father-in-law was working on plans to start a new wrestling promotion. Unfortunately, due to pending legal matters, the new promotion never got off the ground. In August, Taylor signed a contract to wrestle with the Independent Wrestling Cartel (IWC). Gary decided to stay behind, spending time training his cousin, the formerly missing Brooklyn Smith. In September, Taylor notified Gary that she wanted a divorce and she asked him to fly to New York to sign the papers. In early October, Gary did so. While he was there, Orlando Cruze, the owner of the IWC offered Gary a hefty contract to join the IWC to help him with The Blacklist, formerly known as The Newvolution. Despite the fact that Taylor was leaving Gary for Cruze, Gary took the offer under the condition that Cruze also hired his cousin Brooklyn. Gary and Brooklyn started wrestling for the IWC only two weeks later. Despite being brought in to fight The Blacklist, Gary found himself feuding with Jackson Adams and his stable End Effect, while Gary continued to call out The Blacklist. Personally, wrestling in the same company as his ex-wife and her new lover was taking a toll on Gary. By Thanksgiving of 2013, Gary had started drinking again. In December, he feuded with Rachel Fox, and in January, Ba'al. in early February 2014, during IWC Riot, Matt attacked Chase, with the help of The Blacklist. He later admitted that his alliance with The Blacklist was a one-off and he was going in business for himself. Gary challenged Chase, who was then the IWC World Champion to face him in a title vs. career match, which Taylor accepted. In a hard fought battle, Gary lost the only World title shot he had received in all his years as a wrestler to his ex-wife. Without a word, Gary left the arena and kept his word, retiring from professional wrestling. Retirement (2014-Present) In the year following his retirement, Gary checked into a 90 day drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Florida before selling his home in Orlando and moving to Tampa. In Tampa, he started a wrestling school and gym which he named Hammerlock Academy in dedication to his late uncle and manager, Jack "The Hammer" Smith. He also spent time training both his cousin Brooklyn Smith and professional wrestler Timothy Myers after Myers suffered a near career-ending knee injury. As of 2017, Gary is currently working on a venture with retired wrestling legend and friend, Simon Lyman. Personal Life Matthews has one daughter, Amanda, who was born in 2002. He also has one half-sister, Allison, and one cousin, Brooklyn Smith, who is currently wrestling for Global Championship Wrestling. Matthews was married to wrestler Taylor Chase for eight months between 2012-2013. In Wrestling Finishing Moves *The Maniac Rack (camel clutch) *Brain Damage (full nelson slam) Signature Moves *Reverse neckbreaker *DDT *Swinging neckbreaker *Full nelson *Hammerlock Entrance Music *"Sweating Bullets" by Megadeth (2002-2010) *"In Ashes They Shall Reap" by Hatebreed (2010-2014) *"N.W.O." by Ministry (As Masked Vengeance; 2012) Greatest Rivals *Max Dynamite (2009) *Typhoid Mary (2009-2012) *Johnny Devious (2009-2010) *Markie DeSade (2010, 2012) *Sebastian Blake (2012) *Aaron Harrison/Newvolution/The Blacklist (2012-2014) Teams and Factions *The Hellfire Club (Faction included Alexi Chambers, Johnny Devious, Aiden Chambers, Static Widow, "The Monster" Payne, The Collector, Scott Ashton; 2009-2010) *Mal-Intent (with Static Widow; 2009) *Redemption (with Steven Bauer; 2010) *Maniacal Chaos (with Cindy Todd; 2010) Championships and Awards Erie Wrestling League *EWL Heavyweight Championship (4 times) Vegas Stakes Wrestling *VSW Heavyweight Championship *VSW Silver State Championship *VSW Tag-Team Championship (2 times with Static Widow) Empire State Wrestling *ESW Big Apple Championship *ESW Heavyweight Championship (2 times) *ESW Tag-Team Championship (2 times with Static Widow) Outback Wrestling League *OWL Southern Cross Championship *OWL Tag-Team Championship (1 time with Steven Bauer, 1 time with Cindy Todd) Canadian Wrestling Federation *CWF National Television Championship Dominion Championship Wrestling *DCW Golden Horseshoe Championship